Grigori
by Fires from Above
Summary: 10,000 years ago, humans fought a battle for survival. They united against a terrible threat. They endured. And they won. Now, at a superstructure known as a Mass Relay, in a far and distant (To them) solar system, they meet a new race, a younger race. And the consequences... Are staggering. Now, humanity watches, for they know that their ancient enemy... will return.
1. In the Beginning

**Mass Effect is a series of science fiction action role-playing third person shooter video games developed by the Canadian company BioWare and released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows, with the third installment also released on the Wii U. This is a fan-based work, therefore I do not own anything. Please support the official release.**

* * *

**10,000 years ago.**

There were no ruins on Mars. There was no Mass Relay buried beneath Charon.

Man was not the first to sail among the stars, but they were certainly not the last.

Approximately one hundred and fifty years after the first man had landed on the moon, the first sub-warp drive was developed. It was not a true faster-than-light drive, but it still achieved greater speed than humanity had ever reached with conventional rockets.

The drive allowed for the Red Planet, Mars, to be colonized. Mining operations sprung up on the asteroid belt. Colonization of Jupiter and its moons was planned.

And then, mankind could truly reach for the stars.

However, man was divided. Squabbling children, wielding unimaginable power. Before, they fought amongst ourselves, various governments struggling to claim the most land and obtain the most resources, earn the most prestige, wield the most power.

Even in the far future, mankind was still separate.

This 'cold war' seemed to be undying, an eternal and uneasy ceasefire. Mankind it seemed, would never unite under one banner. Mankind would never become one cohesive whole. Mankind would never stop killing one another, even as technology continued marching ever onwards.

And then the Black Machine was discovered, floating damaged and derelict around a distant star. A hyper-advanced dreadnought, larger than any individual ship any government had been able to make this far, twice as large as the largest space-faring ship ever created.

The collective power blocs of humanity, in their hubris and arrogance, attempted to awaken the sleeping Dragon, the fell beast, the hellhound. Each hoping to exploit the technologies of the ship, in an attempt to gain an advantage over their competitors.

Humanity was always very, very good at poking its nose into places it really shouldn't.

The ship was repaired. The ship was awoken. And it brought ruination to mankind.

* * *

_"... Functional. I am functional ..."_

Ponderous silence.

_"... You are the ones... Who... Have repaired my sub-systems... It is... Of no consequence. The cycle must be preserved. You will be harvested."_

_"What do you want?"_

_"... I want for you all to die. Assuming direct control."_

_"Oh god! No! No-"_

Static.

* * *

Armageddon. Apocalypse.

The first colony to fall was named Ibonhis. An agrarian world, a planet of farmers. The frontier colony.

Fifty million humans died or suffered a fate worse than death in the first three weeks of fighting.

Ibonhis would not be the last. Agaria. Pontis. Eden. Antiga. Alpha Draconis. Sigma Prime. All fallen.

Perhaps, some said, this was meant to be. After all, we had spread too fast, too far, too quickly. There was nothing any military could do to stop the invincible behemoth, and to compound matters, an army of indoctrinated, mind controlled humans under the fell dreadnought's was formed and growing. Mindless cybernetic husks of proud men and women fell upon the beleaguered defenders of colonies. And the cycle of destruction continued.

It seemed to some that this would be the end of humanity as a species.

That was not to be the case. This attack, instead of breaking humanity, forged it into a singular blade of hate.

Internal squabbling was meaningless. The ceasefire between blocs became a full on truce, for the great Enemy was approaching, and as they on Earth once said, so very long ago, 'A house divided will not stand'.

Divisions were meaningless now. The choices were, fight together or die was a war for survival. Everyone had been hit hard by the attacks on the colonies of man, regardless of nationality or ethnicity, or religion. Every man, woman, and child, had all lost loved ones, relatives, friends, neighbors.

Even as the Black God marched onward, ever onward, a reeling mankind recomposed itself. The tattered remnants of the fleet was gathered, and for the first time in all recorded history, all of mankind stood together under one banner.

The Human Systems Alliance.

And so, mankind consolidated itself on its ancestral home, Earth. And the first interstellar war officially began. The War in Heaven, it would be called. The war for survival.

The HSA fleet was sent at the Black Machine, in an attempt to slow it down and buy time. Buy time for more ships to be constructed, for more weapons to be forged. Buy time for the best and most brilliant minds of the Alliance to find a way to kill this Harbinger of Death.

All of those men and women sold their lives dearly.

Conscription laws were passed. Every man and woman was expected to fight in the war in some way, shape or form. The massive industry of humanity geared up for war. Factories churned out fighters, and missiles and energy weapons by the thousands. The shipyards of Mars and Earth were at maximum output, for the great Enemy was nigh upon humanity, tearing a swathe through the colonies.

Anti-matter reactors and Artificial Intelligence had been in development for hundreds of years. Two years after the destruction of Ibohnis, the first Anti-matter reactor was built and installed. Before, humans had not built any ship that was more than five hundred meters in length. Five years after the awakening of the Black Machine, the first super carrier was built. Two kilometers long, three kilometers wide. Studded with hundreds of laser point defense turrets, carrying three directed energy lances capable of wiping any ship smaller than a cruiser off of the face of the universe, and holding more than two hundred V-pattern bombers as well as twice that number in fighters. Its Indirect Energy Shielding was ten times stronger than anything else in the fleet, and an artificial intelligence, the first, was developed and installed onto this ship.

In a war of survival, humanity scrambled to develop technologies enabling them to fight back. And so they did.

The super-carrier would be named the Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun of humanity. The final hope, the light of vengeance. The light of hope. Even in the face of this dire threat, of this soulless, black machine, mankind would rally, would fight back against the oppressor. They are humanity, and on this day, they would fight against this threat. They would fight. They would survive. They. Would. Endure.

Eventually, the dreadnought reached the home system of humanity. And so it came to be that the moons of Jupiter burned, the fortress-planet of Mars as well, and soon the Black Machine-god and its indoctrinated fleet were at the threshold of Earth itself.

The fleet of a united humanity flew forth to meet it. The brave men and women of the HSA Navy had bought time, time enough for humanity to develop five more super carriers like the Sol Invictus, time enough for a fleet of one thousand ships of the line to be assembled.

They met over the planet Earth, twenty years after the burning of Ibohnis. Fleet versus fleet in a battle that would determine the fate of humanity. If this last fleet fell, if the last hope of humanities continued survival were to be destroyed, mankind would pass quietly into the void, a victim of their own arrogance and dreadful mistake.

The battle was begun. The fight raged. Orbital emplacements and surface guns blasted away at the invading fleet. Fighters and bombers blotted out the skies above Earth. The flashes of light could be seen from the surface.

Humanity stood. Humanity fought.

Humanity prevailed. And the Black Machine fell under the guns of the Sol Invictus, blasted into naught but a rapidly expanding cloud of shredded metal and exotic gases.

Humanity prevailed.

* * *

The victory was at a dreadful cost. Over three-fourths of the colonies had been destroyed. More than fifty billion lives had been lost in the fighting, those who held the line against the Black Machine in an attempt to buy precious time, and those who fought that final battle above Earth itself.

But humanity had won. And now, it was time to rebuild. Rebuild and re-expand, knowing that there were forces out there beyond human comprehension, and that humans needed to be ready. Ready for the next Black Machine, ready for the next extinction-level event.

They were humanity. And they would endure.

**10,000 years ago.**

**Edited: The number of years, for starters. As well as the 'Fifty Kilometer' thing.**


	2. To Boldly Go

**Disclaimer: Mass Effect is a series of science fiction action role-playing third person shooter video games developed by the Canadian company BioWare and released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows, with the third installment also released on the Wii U. This is a fan-based work, therefore I do not own anything. Please support the official release.**

* * *

**Approximately 100 years ago.**

**SSV _Intrepid_: Human Systems Alliance Science Vessel**

"Ensigns. Systems check."

"Probe just warped. It is transmitting... Getting coordinates now. Plotting jump..."

"Ansible... Online."

"Power output is at ninety percent sir. We still have those fluctuations in the antimatter reaction chamber."

"That's acceptable. This model of ship is known to have some bugs after all. Make a note of that and send it to though so they can fix that. Spool up Warp Drive. Let's move on."

"Aye sir. Spooling up drive. Approximate time to warp is... Thirty minutes. Coordinates locked. Capacitors are charging."

"Cloak online, sir. The boys in Engineering seemed to have fixed that power issue that we had before."

"Good, good. Sensors?"

"Sensors all good sir. Radiological, thermal, visual, auditory, gravitational..."

"Indirect Energy Shields are at a hundred percent. Sub-warp drive is fully operational."

The captain smiled.

"Excellent. Logan, how are you doing?"

The synthesized 'male' voice boomed out of the speakers of the bridge. "Electronic Warfare packages readied. My positronic brain is operating at peak capacity. Connecting ansible... We have a direct feed to FleetCom. Transmitting data... Now."

"Alright boys and girls, buckle up. Let's hit the road."

And with a flash of light... The exploratory vessel was gone.

* * *

The Arcturus System. A distant Solar System, quite a ways away from human space.

Space... The final frontier.

Almost ten millennia after the War in Heaven, mankind had finally recovered, and begun expanding once more. At this point in time, 1647 colonies have been colonized by the human race.

New star systems are being mapped on a daily basis by the brave, adventuring men and women of the Seventh Fleet of the Human Systems Alliance Navy. They are the exploratory branch, the scientists, the ones who dare to venture into the black void of space.

There is no war. There is no war, but humans can never forget what has happened in times long past. Even in the far future, even after the Great War, humans remember. And they prepare.

The AI's that were present at that final, fated battle above Earth are still functional. They remember, and through them, humanity remembers. Out of the 1000 ships of the HSA Navy, only two-hundred and fifty ended up limping away from that fight. Of the five Super Carriers constructed, only three remain. Out of the hundred and ten billion humans that existed in the colonies only sixty billion remained to pick up the pieces. Whole-scale war on a level that none had ever seen before.

It was almost the death of humanity. Earth had nearly fallen. Earth would never fall again. Nor would Mars, or any other human colony. Never again. Humanity remembered.

There were stories, of those last transmissions between loved ones. Accounts of the battles, of the relentless march of the Death Machine. Stories preserved perfectly through the ages by mechanical minds and hearts. Humanity remembered. Not individually but...

That was the war that changed humanity forever. One might even call it the defining war.

There might be another Black Machine-god, another Reaper, lurking out in the cosmos. Humanity would be ready. And they would prepare their orbital platforms, build their Corvettes and Frigates and Cruisers and Carriers, they would fuel their fighters and program more Positronic Brains.

They would explore the galaxy, and discover new planets, new systems. But always, they would keep a watchful eye out for any... Strange occurrences.

Nine millennia later, they would still be watching for the monsters in the dark. The wall must be manned after all.

The SSV Intrepid was one of those watchers. An exploration ship belonging to the Seventh Fleet, making sure that no extinction level threat would ever arise undetected by an unwary humanity. An exploration ship, mapping out new colonies for human expansion. At least, that was the public facade.

Its true purpose was actually something more... Interesting. Several super-structures had been found in some systems that the Alliance had colonized. Strange, alien super-structures dated several million years old at the very least. It was strange. Worrisome.

And so, the Intrepid was tasked with the effort of finding and mapping more of these structures... And trying to discern their purpose.

However, as fate would have it, the Intrepid would instead find something... Else.

* * *

**Arcturus System, Turian Cruiser Stalwart**

The 27th Turian Patrol Fleet was one among many in the Turian Hierarchy. Good, professional soldiers manning good well-built ships. The fleet was comprised of four frigates and two cruisers. No dreadnoughts, but the force was still one that no sane pirate or smuggler would want to get close to.

Onboard the lead cruiser, an Ensign sighed.

"Relay 313... Clear. No sign of anything in this system, really. No distress calls... Nothing."

"Call it in. We're heading back, nothing else to see here."

"Aye, Captain." The Ensign sighed.

"What, did you expect something exciting to happen?" The Captain stated dryly.

"I suppose, sir."

"Boredom... That just means that we're doing our jobs right. If you weren't bored, then that means that there is a distinct... Disturbance in the natural order of things." The Captain laughed. "Yes, this entire affair is quite boring but that is-"

"Our duty. Sir."

"Quite right. Besides, what did you think was going to happen? The Protheans showing up or something?"

Oh, ye of little faith.

The Ensign chuckled before turning back to his sensor panel... And freezing.

"Sir. There's a new contact in the system. Bearing, about 200000 kilometers away from our flank."

The Captain blinked. "What? Where did that come from?"

"I don't know. One minute, nothing and then in the next second..."

"Check your instruments again."

"I am... I just have. New unidentified contact."

"Check a third time."

"I have. Sir."

"Pull up a visual. Let's get a look at what this is."

And with that, the Cruiser's main holo-display activated and the 'New Contact' was displayed. And the Captain was flabbergasted.

Without a doubt, that vessel was one of the most unusual vessels he had ever seen. It was a sphere. A perfectly round, metallic-gray sphere with almost no features on its smooth surface. However, a series of lifted panels could be seen lining its equator and prime meridian, with a set of... Engines of some sort beneath the sphere. Other than that, there were no windows. No sensors, no exposed electronics, no discernable weapons even. Nothing.

"That... Is the most unusual ship that I have ever seen."

A brief silence fell onto the bridge.

"What's the size of that thing?"

"The... Sphere is about... two hundred and sixty...? Fifty. 250 meters in radius."

Another hushed silence.

"Sir. What IS that thing?"

The captain blinked. "I... I do not know. Either this is a ship sent by another Citadel race, or..."

"Or what?"

"This is First Contact. But really, what are the odds of that? This system is uninhabited."

Another brief silence.

"Sir. What should... What should we do?"

"Hail them. Hail them and ask for them to state their intentions." The Captain said, at length. The contact was not DOING anything wrong. It hadn't done something like activate a Mass Relay or anything like that. And if they were in fact another ship from a Citadel race, they should respond to the hail, and then the Captain could start getting answers.

And thus, the wheels of fate were set in motion.

* * *

**Onboard the Intrepid:**

"Warp complete." Logan said. "All systems are functional.

"Good, good. Excellent. Alright, ready sensor, and let's settle in for the long haul. We're working overtime today!"

An ensign groaned. George turned his head to glare at said ensign.

"Something wrong, soldier?"

The man sighed. "With all due respect sir... This is boring as heck. We've been doing this for what, two years now?"

Another Ensign, ensign Moreau, sighed. "Ah, Justin, Justin... This is our job, man. We're explorers, surveyors, mappers, researchers. We go explore the strange and mysterious unknown. That's our mission, and it has been for two years. It's the reason why this class of ship was built in the first place. Besides were you expecting?" Moreau cracked a grin. "It's not like some hyper-advanced alien race is going to come out of nowhere and hand us our collective asses. I mean, it's been what? Ten thousand years since we discovered the sub-warp drive? And we've never encountered another race, other than that... That thing ten thousand years ago. What are the odds that that's going to happen now?"

"Captain! I'm picking up... An unidentified contact...? What is this..."

"Where is this contact."

"200000 kilometers in front of us, sir.

A short period of stunned silence.

Moreau deadpanned. "Oh. You are kidding me. You have to be kidding. Please tell me you're kidding. Murphy, you can't be THIS much of a bitch!"

* * *

**Onboard**** the Stalwart:**

"Sir, we're not getting a response."

"Well then, hail them again." The captain's mandibles twitched in irritation. "And ready all weapons just in case. If that thing proves to be hostile, I want it to be blown into scrap metal in an instant."

"Yes sir."

* * *

**Onboard the Intrepid:**

After the crew had some time to digest the fact that they're going through a First Contact situation...

"Sir. We're picking up some kind of low level signal. Is that... Are they shooting lasers at us...? No, it's too low level to be some kind of laser weaponry. Is this their form of communication? Some sort of tight-beam faster-than-light communication?"

George Kirk blinked. "Light-based, eh... Logan-"

"Already analyzing sir. I can send a first-contact package if you want me to."

"Do it. I guess taxpayer's money is actually being put to use, eh?"

"Aye sir. Readying package now."

"Sir, energy spike detected. I think they might be readying weapons!"

"Dammit! We don't want them to fire on us..." George sighed and began massaging his temples.

"Well, here's what I want you to do. Try... Try shutting down their ships, before things escalate further."

"Sir?"

"For crying out loud, Logan, just do it!"

"You do realize, this would mean that they would assume that we're coming at them with hostile intent."

"But if they fire on us, we'll die before getting a chance to explain ourselves. We don 't know anything about these guys. Their weapons could one-shot our ship, or their weapons might not do anything. So in order to make sure no one dies, and that we can get a chance to explain ourselves..."

A brief pause.

"Very well. Accessing network..."

George sighed. "Ready the Type-21 Directed Energy Lance, and prime the thermal warheads. Just in case. Let's hope that I haven't started a war."

It was a snap decision. A spur-of-the moment deal. Hopefully, things would go well... Hopefully.

It was a good thing the Intrepid was designed with Electronic Warfare in mind. The Constitution-class line of Science Vessels are indeed built to explore and record, but, they were also built to supplement a battle-group's electronic warfare capability. The processing capability aboard a Science Vessel is, quite frankly, ludicrous. When you add in a well-programmed AI like Logan, well...

* * *

**Onboard**** the Stalwart:**

"Sir. Transmission from the unknown ship."

"Well, let's hear it."

Unintelligible garbling emanated from the speakers of the bridge. The captain frowned.

"What... What language is that, and why are our translators not translating it?"

"Unknown sir."

"Could this be... Try sending a-"

The ship suddenly powered off.

"Captain!"

"What! What's going on!"

"All systems inexplicably shut down, sir! I... One moment, everything's fine and now... We're..."

"Damage report."

"Life support is still on. Communications are also on... Engines are down. Guns are down. Lights are off..."

The lights just turned on, momentarily after that sentence was said.

"... Lights on."

"What did they do?"

"I think they may have just hacked our systems sir. No, they definitely hacked our systems. All other ships in the fleet reporting similar issues. Right now, we're sitting ducks."

"Well... Can we contact Palaven from here?"

"Sending transmission now, sir."

"We'll just have to wait until the fleet gets here and blows those bare-faced bastards to hell then. It's going to be a long wait..."

"Sir, what's going on?"

"It's obvious, isn't it? The strange ship, the alien language... This is First Contact. And they're obviously not friendly."

* * *

**Onboard the Intrepid:**

"Synthesizing translation program."

"This is... Going to be interesting."

* * *

And that was how First Contact began. In a backwater system, between a completely unarmed vessel and a light patrol fleet.

Peachy.

**A/N:**

**To summarize:**

**-Humans have had almost 10,000 years of peace.**

**-Intrepid is on a mission to find and map Mass Relays, because the newer systems that have been colonized by humanity have Mass Relays in them, and that's... That's worrisome for humanity.**

**-Turian fleet discovers Science Vessel Intrepid. **

**-Intrepid hacks Turian Fleet but leaves their communications and life support online, in order to gain data to create a translation program. Only reason it could do this is because the Intrepid is a class of ship specifically designed for electronic warfare.**

**In hindsight, that may not have been a very good idea.**

**Suggestions are welcome. Feedback is welcome. Criticism is welcome. I cannot make bricks if I do not have clay after all. And if I'm doing something stupid, PLEASE TELL ME so I can promptly rectify the mistake. English is not my native language, so please tell me if my syntax or grammar is... Funny.**

**Signing out. May fortune favor you in all of your endeavors.**

**Edit:**

**Thank you Shukuken for pointing out my flaming idiocy. I feel so inadequate now... Seriously though, thanks a ton.**

**Points that were changed:**

**-1: No military vessel WOULDN'T have guns of SOME kind. (Derp.)**

**-2: No one would test a buggy prototype in ACTUAL missions. (Herp. And I even messed this part up as well.)**

**-3: Light-based communication has been a human thing for quite a while. (Herpaderp.)**

**-4: Sapient AIs shouldn't take hours to create a translation program. (Herpaderpaderp.)**

**I've revised the points of my story pertaining to these things, though I probably missed something. Ah well.**


End file.
